Prominent Trump backer Joe Arpaio first rose to national infamy when he erected tent prisons in the sweltering heat of desert Arizona, announcing with clear vitriol to any TV camera that would point at him that he was getting tough on crime. The one-time self-styled “toughest Sheriff in America” is now a felon, a convicted criminal himself. He was accused, tried, and convicted of a pattern of abusing the Constitutional rights of people who fell prey to the department of rogue cops under his control (especially people of color, particularly Latinos). In fact, Arpaio would be in prison himself right now, likely for the rest of his life, if not for a political payback pardon from President Trump.

And now it seems that the Trump administration has taken one of the most cruel tactics from Arpaio’s playbook, a tent prison in the desert, and is using it against Latino… children.

In a stunningreportfrom the New York Times, journalist Caitlyn Decker revealed that the Trump administration has been secretly moving thousands of immigrant and refugee children, held without their parents, to a tent prison complex in the desert of West Texas, in the dead of night. The children are brought in from the detention centers and homes where they’ve been housed, strewn about the country. They’re reportedly awakened and moved with little warning, to keep them from running away.

Before they were moved to the sand colored tents outside Tornillo Texas, where desert temperatures range from extremely high to extremely low, these children were placed in private foster homes, or facilities where they would share a room with one or two other kids. In Trump’s Arpaio style tent prisons, children sleep in dormitories in rows of bunks, in groups of twenty. And unlike their previous housing, these children have no school (instead they’re given a workbook, which they do not have to complete) and very limited access to legal services.

Major differences between Trump’s tent prisons and Arpaio’s? In Arpaio’s tent prisons males were made to wear pink underwear to embarrass them. There’s no word of that kind of foolishness, here. In Arpaio’s tent prisons the prisoners were mostly adults. And in Arpaio’s tent prisons, air conditioning wasn’t always provided. That’s about where the differences end.

In Trump’s tent prisons, like in Arpaio’s, those held captive against their will are primarily Latino, and targeted in a clearly race based policy. A policy which, in Apaio’s case, led to a conviction for violating the Constitutional rights of citizens. In Trump’s tent prisons, at least, there is air conditioning. But then again, the prisoners are all children, separated from their families, and held without their parents. And both the Trump and Arpaio prisons were erected in a desert location.

When workers at facilities formerly housing some of these children learned of the impending moves, the Times report says, many were deeply concerned, and moved to tears. But the outrage has not ended there, as President Trump’s favorite social network, Twitter, exploded with outrage at the news. And so did the grounds of the Tornillo, Texas facility, which saw crowds of protesters.

Texas has become a Guantanamo for migrant children with no transparency to reporters, welfare workers, and medical aid. Gov Abbott, along with Senators Cruz and Cornyn never address comprehensive immigration reform much less separation of families. These Texas leaders have to go.

These children, moved in the dark of night because my government doesn't want me to know what they're up to, not emoluments or tweets, will be what my son is gonna ask me about one day. Hope I have a good answer.https://t.co/oh3XoNykbvpic.twitter.com/PGi4L7s1r7

If you use the proper term it may stop. These are by definition, "Concentration Camps." Not death camps like the Nazis in 1942 but similar to Dachau in 1937. Is it a mater of time till Trump and Miller start exterminations? Don't say you didn't know. Don't pretend it's normal. https://t.co/0pbMN754v8

Yes we now have concentration kid camps in America an we’ve lost our nations Soul but in exchange we got 30 pieces of silver in our 401k’s that will stain us till we die.Best Pray there is no after life cause we are all going to hell.

there weren't gas chambers in German concentration camps either, at first. Genocide occurs in stages, often. Taking a marginalized group away from communities and support networks is a first step towards making them disappear permanently without anyone knowing. https://t.co/LiSKJtOcAS

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